These past few weeks have been stunning, awe-striking, difficult, and an enormous place of growth.
This month is all squad month, so my whole squad is living together in a bunk-bed, kitchen, and actual couches home in Quito, Ecuador (can I get a #blessed). All 33 of us.
My team is working with an organization in town called Pan de Vida or The Bread of Life. This organization is an all-in-one, one-in-all ministry that reaches families all over Quito to provide them with hunger relief, education, healthcare, and so much more. For the past week, my team and I rise at 6:00/6:30am to eat breakfast provided by our hosts. We leave the home at 7:00am to hop on a 30 minute bus ride to the Pan de Vida site. The buses are crowded and warm and have been a place for some unexpected friendships.
After arriving, we spend the morning updating the Pan de Vida blogs, planning the children´s program for the evening, and talking about Jesus. As 12:00pm roles around we are cooking for the 30 or more children who travel from all over the city for the meal and lesson-they range in age from 5-12.
Some travel alone with their younger siblings up to 2 hours by bus to receive what we can give.
As they arrived, we taught them a lesson, fed them, and helped (the best we could) with their homework, hoping to finish up around 4:30pm so they won´t have to travel home in the dark.
We make our way home each night to comfortable bunk-beds and warm dinner, but I´m uncertain where these children go when they leave, or even how they arrive there.
I don´t know if they will have another meal today.
I don´t know what their homes look like, or where they lay their heads.
I don´t know if their parents will be home, or if they will slip into an empty house, grasping the hand of their younger sibling.
I just don´t know.
But, I do know I want to be a part of hope for their day.
Christ so fiercely loves each of us and my team has been called upon to love each of these children.
To give them hope that tomorrow, I will be there again..
This month is humbling me more and more to all that I have and all that I can give away.
Open hearts and open minds. It´s the motto of the Methodist Church I grew up in and it has been on my mind. And it holds true.
This week my team, will be visiting the homes of families who are looking to receive assistance from Pan de Vida. They will raise support and awareness to provide these families with what they need, to make a difference, and to break the cycle of poverty.
If you feel led to give or be a part of changing the lives of one of these families, you can find more info Here.
Love, grace, acceptance, humility, open hearts, and open minds.
That´s what we all can walk in each and every day.
Sharing light and hope to fiercely love all those we encounter.
As always, I am so thankful for the love, support, and kindness of each and every one of you. You are a part of this mission, you are a part of these children´s lives. THANK YOU from the absolute bottom of my heart.
